Difference between different key types

[Faramir]

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El 23-08-2010 16:56, Jerry escribió:
...
>    (1) RSA and RSA (default)
>    (2) DSA and Elgamal
>    (3) DSA (sign only)
>    (4) RSA (sign only)
> 
> What is the difference between choices 1 & 2? Is one better than the
> other? Which would be preferred? I am assuming #1; however, "KGPG" (In
> the KDE suite) seems to prefer choice #2.

  The only stupid question is the one that is not asked.

  As far as I know, RSA keys required licence to be used, so GnuPG
favored DSA and Elgamal combination, since they were free. Finally, RSA
keys became free and got included in free software. So far, it would be
almost the same to use one or the other option, _but_:

  DSA keys used to have max size of 1024 bits, which by today standards
are too short. DSA2 standard allows bigger keys, but may cause trouble
with legacy software. IIRC, RSA has been around in free software for
longer time than DSA2, so it is less likely to have problems. Of course,
there are no guarantees you won't find somebody using a really old
implementation of OpenPGP.

  And there is something about hash algoritms and DSA, so I would chose
RSA and forget about it. As Robert J. Hansen said, the defaults are
good, so don't change them unless you know what you are doing.

  Best Regards


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